Building Local Capacity to Gather and Use Health Worker Data

The CapacityPlus Voices series shows the impact of the project’s work in the words of individuals. “Worth More than Any Money:” Building Local Capacity in Health Worker Information Systems features Kayode Odusote’s experiences with helping West African countries to gather and use health worker data.

Professor Odusote is the director of human resources development for the West African Health Organization (WAHO). He describes the region's need for a human resources information system that would not be too complicated or expensive, and could be adapted to local contexts. Working with the Ghana Ministry of Health and CapacityPlus, he led a successful pilot of iHRIS Manage. The results inspired other WAHO member countries to explore using CapacityPlus’s iHRIS software. “We hope it will become the standard HRIS software in the region,” he says, “as we could then exchange information and experiences as well as aggregate regional data readily.”

Professor Odusote emphasizes the value of building local capacity through a technical partnership. He also stresses the importance of Open Source software, and gives an example from Nigeria about how local developers easily modified the code to suit their needs. “Using Open Source technologies to foster innovation, adaptability, and ownership of health information systems can save countless lives,” he says.

Photo by Dykki Settle. (Kayode Odusote [left] reviews iHRIS customizations)